NASA, lawmakers at odds on cooperation with China

The International Space Station photographed soon after the… (NASA )

July 16, 2013|By Mark K. Matthews, Washington Bureau

WASHINGTON — Most Americans know how the space race began: with the 1957 launch of Sputnik by the U.S.S.R. But fewer remember how it all but ended: a 1975 mission in which an Apollo spacecraft docked with its Soviet counterpart in low Earth orbit.

Historians view that flight as a turning point, paving the way for the U.S. and Russia to team up decades later to build the International Space Station.

It's also an example cited — almost religiously — by space activists nowadays who want to see the United States work more closely with China, another global rival. Yet flying a similar U.S.-China mission today could be a tougher sell than even the 1975 flight, which launched near the height of the Cold War.

Not only is there a wide gulf of distrust between the U.S. and China, but NASA is barred — under a 2011 law — from partnering with the Asian superpower on space projects.

Supporters of the ban, up for renewal this year, say it's a sensible precaution that helps safeguard NASA secrets from prying eyes. Critics counter it's a roadblock to awe-inspiring missions, such as a human trip to Mars.

The one thing each side agrees on is that the thorny issue is unlikely to be resolved soon.

"The advantages of international cooperation really have to outweigh the technical losses," said Howard McCurdy, a space-policy expert at American University.

Though the Chinese have made significant strides in recent years, he said the U.S. still holds the advantage in aerospace development and that Washington policymakers must decide whether they want to share — willingly or not — those advances.

If it's going to be a "strictly one-way relationship," then there has to be a "pressing reason" to do it, McCurdy said. Among the possibilities: using space as a tie-in to help broker deals on climate change or arms control, he said. "The one [reason] that makes sense is geopolitical," he said.

A minor space power for decades, China only recently has started to flex its orbital muscles.

In 2003, China become only the third country (behind the U.S. and Russia) to independently launch a human into space. It also shocked the world in 2007 when it used a missile to destroy one of its own probes during an anti-satellite test.

Now China is working to build a major space station by 2020 with the eventual goal of sending its space-farers — sometimes called "taikonauts" — to points beyond, although details are hazy.

This rapid rise, however, has raised suspicions on Capitol Hill.

"We know that China is an active, aggressive espionage threat," said U.S. Rep. Frank Wolf, R-Va., who championed the 2011 ban on NASA cooperation with China.

"I suspect that this focus on stealing space- and flight-based technology explains at least some of the major advances that the Chinese space program has made over the past few years," said Wolf in March during a hearing on NASA's budget.

He added that any collaboration with Beijing only would worsen the problem.

Wolf's assertion, however, is not without its critics — including NASA Administrator Charlie Bolden.

The NASA chief has tangled with Wolf several times over the ban, and Bolden, along with Deputy Administrator Lori Garver, plans to visit China in September for a meeting of the world's space leaders — which is allowed under the ban because other countries will be there.

"We can work with countries and keep them from stealing our technology," Bolden said.

A prime reason to seek China's help is cost. Going to space is expensive, and mounting a historic Mars landing might require every superpower help cover the untold billions it would cost to accomplish.

There's little chance NASA will get more than the $17.7 billion that President Barack Obama requested for NASA in 2014 — and a strong possibility it gets less.

With that in mind, one foreign-policy expert said it's in NASA's interest to work with China as a way to save money in the short term and enable ambitious missions in the future.

"We don't start with Mars. We start with space science and build our way up from that," said Michael Krepon, co-founder of the Stimson Center, a Washington-based think tank that examines global peace and security issues.